6.XII [1921]

To N. P. Gorbunov: I request that you accelerate matters and come to an understanding with A. D. Tsiurupa.¹

Lenin.

¹ The matter concerns a petition to the Council of People's Commissars from the All-Russian Trade Cooperative of Hunters (VPKO) to permit it, in view of the Foreign Trade Commissariat's refusal, to conclude a goods-credit transaction with the Germans for the purchase of hunting supplies.

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**LETTERS TO A. M. LEZHAVA**

**6 December 1921**

Comrade Lezhava,

In one of the newspapers recently (it was almost in "Pravda") I saw a note about the turnover of the Foreign Trade Commissariat (in the Crimea) of 20,000,000 rubles in gold!

Where does this come from?

Have you established local accounting of turnover at your end, with a breakdown into purchases and sales, and then by major product categories?

Please answer, addressed to N. P. Gorbunov, and inform us more precisely how matters stand with accounting.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

¹ The reference is to the note "The Activities of the Foreign Trade Commissariat in Sevastopol," *Pravda* No. 275, 6 December 1921.

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**To Comrade Lezhava, People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade**

**26 December 1921**

The report of comrade Emelyanov, upon whom one can and must rely absolutely, concerning thefts during unloading in Reval, gives rise to the most extreme concern and raises a question of gigantic importance.

I draw the attention of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade to this circumstance. Take the most energetic measures, including verification through reliable people, and report to me on the results of the verification and on the measures taken. Address your response to comrade Smolyannin.

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars Lenin.

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**To Comrades Lezhava and Rykov**

**[End of 1921]**

Clearly, we have disorder here (including in the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade). There must be a record: what was requisitioned? when? by whom? by whom was the requisition approved?

It turns out that there are no records. Complete chaos. Time passes.

Excavators are needed urgently.

Why have they not been ordered in Germany?

In America?

In Sweden?

From whom—Reine?

Lenin.

¹ A. M. Lezhava wrote to Lenin (there is no date on the document; apparently it refers to the end of the year): "Things are going badly with excavators: even under comrade Sheinman there was an offer from speculators who quoted a price 800 times the factory price. The offer was rejected. The entire procurement according to plan was turned over to comrade Krasin, and what he did—is unknown. No one reminded us about them. Abroad there is an engineer Reine, dispatched by the Mining Soviet, as I learned only now from a power of attorney that was taken from him by Krasin and sent to me, authorized for independent procurement for his department." On the note from A. M. Lezhava, Lenin wrote: "With excavators" and underlined the word "excavators" (see archive No. 10405).

* In the margin of the note Lenin wrote: "question concerning excavators." Ed.